Talking about types of houses and their location

To ask someone where they live, you can use the following question:‎

• Tu habites où? - Where do you live?‎

To say where you or other people live, use the correct form of habiter (to live) followed ‎by the type of house/flat. You can also give details about the location of your house/flat. For example:‎

• J’habite dans ‎une maison jumelée ‎dans une ville ‎- I live in a semi-detached house in a town.
• Tu habites dans ‎un appartement ‎dans la banlieue - You live in a flat in the suburbs.
• Elle habite dans ‎une maison ‎à la campagne‎ - She lives in a house in the countryside. ‎

To build more sentences to describe where you live, click on ‎the downloadable vocabulary list below:

You can describe your house using adjectives such as grand(e) (big), petit(e) (small), ‎moderne (modern), vieux/vieille (old). Most adjectives need to go after the noun in ‎French, but some adjectives go before the noun. These are often called the BAGS ‎adjectives. BAGS stands for Beauty, Age, Goodness and Size, and examples of these ‎adjectives are:‎

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Where I live - places in the town

To ask someone what there is in their town, you can say:‎

• Qu’est-ce qu’il y a dans ta ville? - What is there in your town?‎

To reply, you can say dans ma ville, il y a (in my town, there is/there are) or il n’y a pas de ‎‎(there is no) and then say what there is (or isn’t) in your town. For example:‎

• Dans ma ville il y a ‎un centre commercial - In my town there is a ‎shopping centre‎.
• Dans mon village ‎il n’y a pas de centre sportif - In my village there isn't a sports ‎centre.‎
• Dans la ville la plus ‎proche, ‎‎il y a un supermarché - In the nearest town there is a ‎supermarket.

For more examples on what there is to do where you live, go to the downloadable useful vocabulary list above.

My local area - what can you do?‎

To ask someone what they can do in their town, you can say:‎

• Qu’est-ce qu’on peut faire dans ta ville? - What can you do in your town?‎

To answer and talk about what you can do in a town, you can use on peut (you can), ‎followed by an infinitive such as aller (to go), regarder (to watch) or jouer (to play).

• Dans ma ville, on peut aller au parc - In my town, you can go to the park.‎
• On peut faire les courses au supermarché - You can do the shopping at the ‎supermarket.‎
• On peut regarder un film au cinéma - You can watch a film at the cinema.‎
• On peut manger au restaurant - You can eat in a restaurant.‎

Activities in the town in the past

To talk about what you did in your town in the past, use the passé composé (perfect ‎tense).‎ This is formed by using the subject, such as je (I), the correct form of avoir (to have) or ‎être (to be) and a past participle.‎

You can also use time phrases. Here are some useful past time phrases:‎

For example:‎

• Vendredi dernier, je suis allé(e) à la mosquée - Last Friday, I went to the mosque.‎
• Hier, mon frère a fait du shopping au centre commercial - Yesterday, my brother ‎went shopping in the shopping centre.‎
• La semaine dernière, ma tante a regardé un match de foot au stade - Last week, ‎my aunt watched a football match at the stadium.‎

Activities in the town in the future

To talk about what you are going to do in your town in the future, you need to use the ‎correct form of aller (to go) and an infinitive.‎

You can also use time phrases. Here are some useful future time phrases:‎

For example:‎

• Demain, je vais jouer au tennis au centre sportif - Tomorrow, I’m going to play ‎tennis at the sports centre.‎
• Le week-end prochain, je vais visiter la cathédrale - Next weekend, I’m going to ‎visit the cathedral.‎
• La semaine prochaine, je vais manger dans un restaurant - Next week, I’m going ‎to eat in a restaurant.‎

Quiz

Read the following passage about where Léa lives and answer the questions in this short ‎quiz.‎

J’habite dans une petite maison dans le centre-ville. Dans ma ville, il y a beaucoup de magasins et un musée. On peut aussi aller au ‎parc et on peut manger au restaurant. Hier, j’ai fait des courses au supermarché et ‎demain, je vais aller à la piscine.